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May 16, 2011

The Honorable Ellen Corbett


California State Senate
State Capitol, Room 313
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001

Subject: SB 242 (Corbett) — OPPOSE

Dear Senator Corbett:

The companies and organizations signed below are writing to strongly oppose SB 242.
As amended in the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 10, SB 242 would significantly
undermine the ability of Californians to make informed and meaningful choices about
use of their personal data, and unconstitutionally interfere with the right to free speech
enshrined in the California and United States Constitutions, while doing significant
damage to Californiaʼs vibrant Internet commerce industry at a time when the state can
least afford it.

SB 242 would decrease overall consumer privacy

Many social networking sites currently offer what are known as “contextual” or “just-in-
time” privacy or visibility controls. This practice, recognized in a recent report of the
Federal Trade Commission as a best practice, lets the user make decisions about use
of their data within the context of the use of that data1. These options give users real-
time information and decision-making power about specific uses of information.

Sections 60(a) and (b) of SB 242 would require social networking sites to force users to
make decisions about privacy and visibility of all of their information well before they
have ever used the service. Known as “privacy shrink wrap,” this practice results in
users clicking quickly through the available options without contextual understanding of
or serious thought to the case-by-case implications of the choices being made. A
common just-in-time, contextual privacy notice on a popular social networking site has
fewer than forty words, describes exactly the information to be shared and with whom,
and is easily understood by a layperson. A description of all availability privacy and
visibility options to a consumer who has never used the service in question could take
thousands of words and up to half an hour to read. Making abstract, acontextual choices
about privacy would be quite difficult for an educated adult; that difficulty would be even
greater in the case of minor users of social networking sites.
                                                                                                               
1
“Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: A Proposed Framework for Businesses and
Policymakers,” December 2010. http://www.ftc.gov/os/2010/12/101201privacyreport.pdf
SB 242 is unnecessary

The May 10 version of SB 242 gratuitously singles out social networking sites without
demonstration of any harm. There is no indication that California users of social
networking sites are less sophisticated or more vulnerable than those Californians who
do not use social networking sites, or that social networking sites are failing to
appropriately communicate existing choices to their users. Quite to the contrary,
research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project has found that two-thirds of
users of social networking sites have made adjustments to privacy settings (including
adjustments toward more visibility and adjustments toward less visibility) while more
than 75% of users who are concerned about the availability of personal information
online have done so2. That study also found that the most visible and engaged Internet
users are also most active in adjustment of their settings.

Additionally, there is no indication that Californians want to have personal information


removed from social networking sites but are unable to. Pewʼs study found that only 8%
of social networking site users had ever asked that information about posted about them
be removed, and reported no indication that such requests were being denied in droves.
The major social networking sites already remove personal information when the
requestor specifies the information to be removed and the information is not already
widely available.

SB 242 would do significant damage to Californiaʼs technology sector

California leads the world in Internet commerce; the sector employs an estimated
162,000 people, generates billions of dollars in revenue and is the fastest growing
source of jobs in the state. SB 242 would dramatically limit social networking sitesʼ
growth potential in California by imposing additional operating costs and raising barriers
to consumer participation in social networking services, all while exposing those
services to massive and unwarranted civil liability. This would, in turn, create significant
confusion and uncertainty for investors, business partners and consumers. Further, SB
242 will stifle innovation and prevent companies from bringing new and useful privacy
tools to market, including the new employees required to create and service those
products.

Moreover, the requirements of Sections 60(c) and 60(d) would impose a duty on social
networking sites difficult or impossible to discharge using existing technologies. Social
networking websites host billions of pieces of information with millions more added by
the day. By exposing social networking sites to vast civil liability if they fail to implement
what we already know to be an unrealistic process, SB 242 represents an serious threat
to the viability of Californiaʼs Internet commerce companies.

                                                                                                               
2
“Reputation Management and Social Media,” Madden and Smith, May 26, 2010.
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Reputation-Management.aspx
But the damage would not be limited to traditional social networking sites. SB 242 could
also affect California-based application developers that depend on social networking
platforms for their revenue and growth. The definition of “social networking sites” is so
broad that SB 242 would also capture the web presence and business operations of a
wide swath of Internet companies, ranging from membership-based non-profits to online
dating and travel sites.

SB 242 would violate the United States and California Constitutions

SB 242 would notably interfere with the right to freedom of speech enshrined in both the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1 of the California
Constitution. Specifically, Section 60(a) of the Social Networking Privacy Act would
establish a barrier between an existing California user of a social networking site and
her ability to continue speaking as desired. By hiding from view of all existing usersʼ
information until they made a contrary choice, the State of California would be
significantly limiting those usersʼ ability to “freely speak, write and publish his or her
sentiments on all subjects.” Section 60(c) would disrupt the legitimate speech of non-
requestors who share some information in common with a requestor. For example,
hundreds of Californians can rightly claim the California Senate as their place of
employment. Under SB 242, any one of those individuals would have the right to
demand that any other mention of California Senate by another user be taken down.

Internet commerce is an inherently interstate activity and SB 242 would regulate


businesses far beyond Californiaʼs borders. Social networking sites cannot reliably know
if a visitor is a California resident. Therefore every covered site in the world would need
to change their practices in order to comply with California law. By forcing out-of-state
users to limit their sharing as required by 60(a) and to clear the thresholds to speech
established by Sections 60(b) and (c), SB 242 would limit the ability of non-Californians
to freely enter into in a commercial relationship with social networking sites. As a result,
any out-of-state company affected by the law would be entitled to bring a Commerce
Clause challenge under 42 U.S.C. §1983.

As these are federal constitutional issues, once SB 242 was declared unconstitutional,
the plaintiffs would qualify for an award of attorneysʼ fees against California under 42
U.S.C. §1988. Enactment of this legislation would result in California taxpayers paying
both the plaintiffsʼ attorneysʼ fees as well as the stateʼs defense costs, wasting taxpayer
dollars at a time when California can least afford it.

The undersigned encourage a “no” vote

There are legitimate debates happening in California and around the world about the
nature of online privacy and use of personal information on the Internet. These are
important discussions. However, rather than establishing a floor for online privacy which
social networking sites must meet or exceed, SB 242 would establish a ceiling,
This legislation fails to recognize the significant challenges in establishing a do not track
regime. It ignores the costs to the State of California involved in simply attempting such
an endeavor, and the severe economic harm it would impose on California’s economy
and job creation due to uncertainty of its vast restrictions on companies storing covered
information. For all of these reasons, we oppose SB 761.
undermining meaningful consumer choice while incentivizing this growing industry to
expand their operations anywhere but California.

Sincerely,

Privacy &
Security
Coalition

Elsevier
LexisNexis
Reed Business
Reed Exhibitions

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